BRING ON THE FREE-FOR-ALL
On the eve of the 2017 Stanley Cup playoffs, Mike Zeisberger offers 10 stories you won’t want to take your eyes off of.
1 The heat to repeat In a season saturated with aches and pains, the defending champion Pittsburgh Penguins could not have received much worse news entering the playoffs. As much as losing heart-and-soul superstar captain Sidney Crosby or boy wonder puckstopper Matt Murray would be a staggering blow, the revelation that workhorse blue-liner Kris Letang will miss the entire post-season in order to undergo surgery for a herniated disc in his neck might be a roadblock that simply is too much to overcome.
Almost every Stanley Cup winner in the salary cap era has featured at least one stud defenceman — 2007 Anaheim Ducks (Chris Pronger, Scott Niedermayer), 2008 Detroit Red Wings (Nicklas Lidstrom), 2009 Pittsburgh Penguins (Sergei Gonchar), 2010 Chicago Blackhawks (Duncan Keith), 2011 Boston Bruins (Zdeno Chara), 2012 Los Angeles Kings (Drew Doughty), 2013 Blackhawks (Keith), 2014 Kings (Doughty), 2015 Blackhawks (Keith) and 2016 Penguins (Letang).
There has not been a repeat Cup champion since the Red Wings accomplished the feat in 1997 and ’98. Without Letang, the Penguins’ aspirations to do likewise become that much more difficult, even with the depth added by trade-deadline acquisitions Ron Hainsey and Mark Streit.
2 Capital pains We hear it every spring: Alex Ovechkin, throughout his illustrious career, has never been able to lead his team past the second round of the playoffs. This might be his best shot.
For the Washington Capitals, the time is now, because when all is said and done, this roster is in for major upheaval this summer. Deadline addition Kevin Shattenkirk, fellow defenceman Karl Alzner and wingers T.J. Oshie, Justin Williams and Daniel Winnik are eligible to become unrestricted free agents this off-season. Forwards Evgeny Kuznetsov, Andre Burakovsky and blueliner Dmitry Orlov are pending restricted free agents who will be seeking significant raises, while forward Brett Connolly will be an RFA as well. Sporting arguably the most talented cast in the sport, the Caps certainly have gone all-in to win now.
“We don’t look back, we look ahead,” coach Barry Trotz said when asked about the secondround elimination at the hands of the Penguins a year ago. There’s been enough talk. Now it’s time for the Caps to walk the walk.
3 Connor McPlayoffs You don’t have to be an Edmonton Oilers fan or even a Connor McDavid backer to know this: the NHL playoffs will be better with McDavid in them. Case closed.
In McDavid, the NHL has a generational player who might very well win the Hart Trophy as league MVP in just his second season. Moreover, he has a skill set some NHLers admit they’ve never seen before. New York Islanders captain John Tavares, for example, told Postmedia he has never seen a player accelerate like McDavid.
And while on the subject of an Oilers team that could surprise in the post-season, it’s puzzling why Edmontonians were criticized in some circles for their giddy celebrations when McDavid and Co. clinched a postseason berth. These loyal fans had every right to go bonkers. You deserve to act that way when you haven’t had playoff hockey in your city since 2006.
4 Canadian club Just 12 months after zero Canadian teams qualified for the playoffs, there will be five this time around. The Oilers, Calgary Flames and Montreal Canadiens punched their tickets early, while the Toronto Maple Leafs and Ottawa Senators joined them a little later. McDavid. Johnny Gaudreau. Carey Price. Erik Karlsson. Auston Matthews. Sit back and enjoy, Canada. There will be plenty more to cheer about this spring.
5 The price of revenge? Among the intriguing first-round matchups, the New York Rangers-Montreal Canadiens clash brings with it some history. This will be the first playoff series between these two Original Six rivals since New York’s Chris Kreider, having been upended by the Habs’ Alexei Emelin, crashed skates first into Price in Game 1 of the 2014 Eastern Conference final. The ensuing right-knee injury left the Canadiens goaltender sidelined for the remainder of the playoffs, pretty much ending Montreal’s Stanley Cup hopes in the process.
Price’s health continues to be a concern for a rabid fan base that can’t forget that a torn ligament in that same right knee caused the all-world goalie to miss the final four months of the 2015-16 season. With Price, the Canadiens are never out of a game. Without him, well, the answer is obvious.
6 Windy City window Weren’t the Chicago Blackhawks supposed to be on the decline right now? Wasn’t the salary cap system set up to create parity, thereby keeping franchises from being Cup contenders year in, year out?
And yet, here we have the Blackhawks — supposedly handcuffed by the long-term contracts of Jonathan Toews, Patrick Kane, Duncan Keith, Brent Seabrook and Marian Hossa — once again the top seed in the Western Conference, thanks in part to GM Stan Bowman working his magic to supply his core with a competitive supporting cast despite having limited cap room at his disposal.
Bowman’s act of genius this time around? Picking up Johnny Oduya from the Dallas Stars at the deadline for a prospect and a conditional fourth-round pick in 2018. While hardly a Norris Trophy contender, Oduya won Cups with the Hawks in 2013 and ’15 and comfortably slides into Chicago’s second defensive pairing, a seamless transition that doesn’t require learning a new system.
And with that, here come the Hawks. Again.
7 Toothless Sharks? A late-season swoon. Key cogs such as Logan Couture and Joe Thornton banged up. And inconsistency from goaltender Martin Jones. Add up all these factors and you have a San Jose Sharks team that finds itself hobbling into the post-season, just 10 months after facing the Penguins in the Stanley Cup final. With one of the game’s top coaching staffs led by Peter DeBoer and a veteran-laden roster that never can be counted out, the Sharks are capable of hitting the reset button the moment the playoffs arrive. But they had better do it quickly.
8 Bench boss bonanza A year ago, Mike Sullivan took over the Pittsburgh Penguins in midseason and led them to the fourth Cup in franchise history.
This time around, coaching changes in the past two seasons have resulted in bench bosses DeBoer (Sharks), Trotz (Capitals), Sullivan (Penguins), Todd McLellan (Oilers), Glen Gulutzan (Flames), Peter Laviolette (Predators), Bruce Boudreau (Wild), Mike Yeo (Blues), Bruce Cassidy (Bruins), John Tortorella (Blue Jackets), Mike Babcock (Leafs) and Guy Boucher (Sens) leading their teams to the post-season. All are in their second season or less with their current teams.
And as for Claude Julien (Canadiens) and Randy Carlyle (Ducks), they’re both post-season bound in their second stints with their respective teams.
Obviously, coaching changes do matter.
9 Metro migraine The Metropolitan Division easily was the NHL’s best during the regular season, as underscored by the fact that two teams that surpassed the 100-point plateau — the Penguins and the Columbus Blue Jackets — will meet in the first round.
For Pittsburgh and Columbus, that’s certainly a headache. In fact, critics are calling for a change to the NHL’s playoff format, feeling that a clash between two elite teams like these should take place later in the postseason.
For now, the current system dictates it’ll be Crosby versus Sergei Bobrovsky, two Hart Trophy candidates. And while it won’t be an ideal way to start the Cup hunt for these two teams, it certainly will be fun for hockey fans everywhere.
10 In closing … just call it a Stanley free-for-all
Can the Pens overcome Letang’s absence? Is this finally Ovie’s year? Will Joel Quenneville’s bushy moustache kiss the Cup for a fourth time during his tenure as Hawks coach? Can Price follow up his 2014 Olympic gold medal and 2016 World Cup title with a Cup? Is McDavid capable of cobbling together a postseason Cinderella story? Will the Sharks rediscover their form of last spring? Can Carlyle bring a championship to Orange County again?
Right now, nobody knows. The only certainty here: it will be fun to see how it all plays out.